Using the course builder's canvas tools

The course builder has three areas: the component list on the left, the canvas in the middle where you build the page learners see, and Modules on the right. This article covers the controls that work on the canvas as a whole: the bar at the top of the builder and the toolbar directly above the canvas. For the components themselves, see Course builder components and their settings. For modules and the cover, contents and closing pages, see Modules, the cover, contents and closing page.

Screenshot missingcourse-builder-canvas-toolbar

The course builder at full width with a module open that has content. The top bar shows Back to courses, Undo, Redo, Reset module, Version history, the course title with its pencil, the settings cog, the dark mode toggle, the help icon and Save as draft with its arrow. Directly above the canvas the toolbar shows Module background, the Accessibility indicator reading "2 issues", Animation mode, AI, the "Canvas 712px · phone layout" readout, Hide panels and Preview.

Expected at src/assets/screenshots/guides/use-the-course-builder-canvas-tools/course-builder-canvas-toolbar.png

The builder needs a screen at least 1280 pixels wide. On anything narrower it shows Screen too small with Back to courses, so build courses on a laptop or desktop.

Starting a new course in the course builder

A new course opens with three ways to begin:

Describe it and generate it with AI, in the box at the top. See Creating a course with AI
Use a template to start from a ready-made structure
Blank canvas to start from nothing, with one empty Module 1

The AI box only appears where AI course generation is switched on for your organisation.

Starting a course from a template

Choose Use a template. Start with a template shows the templates available to you.
Choose one to preview it. Previous module and Next module step through its modules.
Choose Use template, or Back to return.

The template’s modules are added to the course, in your brand colours, and replace the empty Module 1 you started with. Nothing is saved until you choose Save as draft. Templates are provided with Learnient; you cannot save a course of your own as a template.

Naming a course in the course builder

The course title sits at the top of the builder. Choose it, or the pencil beside it (Click to edit title), type the new title and press Enter. Esc cancels. Titles can be up to 70 characters.

A course cannot be published while it is called Untitled course, or has no title at all.

Saving in the course builder, and leaving without saving

The builder does not save as you go. Nothing is kept until you choose Save as draft or Publish at the top right, and there is no marker telling you that you have unsaved changes. The difference between the two buttons is covered in Saving your changes.

If you leave with unsaved changes, by Back to courses, another link or your browser’s back button, you are asked first: Cancel stays in the builder, Close without saving discards your changes, and Save changes saves them without publishing. Closing or refreshing the browser tab shows your browser’s own warning instead.

Saving also checks that every question is complete. A question with an empty answer, or a True / False with no correct answer, stops the save, and the module and component with the problem are highlighted.

Undoing and redoing changes in the course builder

Undo (ctrl+Z) and Redo (ctrl+Y) step back and forward through your changes to modules and their content: adding, moving, editing and deleting components, adding, renaming and deleting modules, backgrounds, animation, Reset module and AI-generated content. The builder remembers your last 50 changes. On a Mac, use Cmd+Z and Cmd+Y. Ctrl+Shift+Z (Cmd+Shift+Z on a Mac) also redoes.

Undo starts from the course as you opened it, so Undo is unavailable until you make a change.

While you are typing in a component, the course title, a page name or a search box, Ctrl+Z undoes your typing rather than a builder change.

Undo does not cover the course title, anything in Course settings, changes on the cover or closing page, or ticking and unticking Cover, Contents and Closing page.

Emptying a module with Reset module

Reset module, at the top of the builder beside Undo and Redo, clears the page you are working on: every component, the module’s background and its description. The module and its name stay. Use it to start a module again rather than deleting components one by one.

You confirm Reset module? first. On a module, Undo brings everything back until you save.

With the cover or closing page open, the same button is Reset page. It clears that page and its background after Reset page?, and cannot be undone, because changes to the cover and closing page are outside undo.

The button reads Module is already empty, or Page is already empty, and is greyed out when there is nothing to clear.

Changing the background of a module or page

Module background, the palette button at the left of the toolbar above the canvas, sets the background behind a whole module, every page in it. With the cover or closing page open, the same button is named Page background and sets that page’s background instead.

Choose a Background type:

Type	What you set
None	No background of its own. The page follows the course design
Colour	One colour
Pattern	A colour with a decorative pattern over it: circles, rings, bubbles, a swish, a grid or diagonal lines
Image	A picture from the media library, with Image fit, a Focal point to keep the important part in view, and an Overlay of Dark, Light, Fade up, Fade down, Positive tint or Negative tint at an Overlay opacity you choose
Gradient	A Linear or Mesh blend of two or three Colours, at an Angle you choose

Screenshot missingmodule-background-picker

The Module background picker open from the palette button above the canvas, with Background type set to Image. It shows the chosen picture, Image fit set to Cover, the Focal point marker, Overlay set to Dark and the Overlay opacity slider, with the module behind showing a heading readable over the darkened image.

Expected at src/assets/screenshots/guides/use-the-course-builder-canvas-tools/module-background-picker.png

For an image or a gradient you can also set a Minimum height, and the Content alignment of the page’s content: Top, Middle or Bottom.

A background image is decoration. Learners using a screen reader are not told about it, so anything learners need to see belongs in an Image component instead. Where text sits over a picture, use an overlay strong enough to keep it readable. A faint one shows Weak overlay - text contrast may be unreliable on this image.

Giving one page its own background

To colour a single page differently from the rest of its module, use Page background, the palette button on the page break that starts the page. It takes the same choices, and overrides the module background for that page only. See Splitting a module into pages.

Backgrounds in dark mode

You choose one colour. Learnient works out the matching colour for learners who use dark mode, so you do not need to set both. To see the dark version, switch the builder to dark mode with Switch to dark mode at the top. That changes Learnient’s theme for you everywhere, not just in the builder.

Checking colour contrast with the accessibility checker

The accessibility checker, beside Module background, checks that the text on the page you are working on can be read against what is behind it. It reads Accessible with a green dot when everything passes, or a red dot and the number of components that fail, such as 2 issues.

What the accessibility checker checks, and why

It measures the colour contrast between text and its background against WCAG 2.1 AA, the standard most organisations are asked to meet: at least 4.5 to 1 for ordinary text and 3 to 1 for large text. Large text means at least 24 pixels, or at least 18.66 pixels in bold, which is how WCAG defines it. Low contrast is the most common reason course text is hard to read, for people with poor eyesight, on a bright screen or on a phone outdoors.

It checks every piece of text in headings, text, lists, tables, callouts, quotes, question answers, stat cards, CTA blocks, hero titles, flip cards and stepped reveals, including each side of a flip card and each step of a stepped reveal. It checks light and dark mode every time, because a colour that reads well on white can disappear on black. Each component is checked against what is actually behind it, including a page’s own Page background.

It does not check anything else. Image descriptions, heading order, link wording and video captions are yours to get right. See Describing images and media for screen readers.

When the accessibility checker runs

All the time. It rechecks the page on the canvas as you work, so a colour change shows up straight away. It only checks the page you are looking at, so open each module in turn before publishing. It does not stop you publishing.

Fixing an accessibility issue

Choose the indicator. Each failing component is listed with Fail, its contrast ratio against the minimum, such as Ratio 1.82:1 - minimum 3:1, and swatches of its Text and Background colours. A sun or moon shows whether it Fails in light mode or Fails in dark mode.
Choose an issue to jump to the component on the canvas. It is selected and highlighted.
Change the text colour, the component’s background, the page background or the module background until the ratio passes. The count updates as you go.

Components that pass, but only just, are held back as warnings. When there is at least one failure, a tick box at the foot of the list shows the warnings too.

Screenshot missingaccessibility-checker-issues

The accessibility checker opened from the toolbar above the canvas, listing two issues. Each shows the red Fail tag, a component name such as "Subheading", the moon icon for dark mode on one of them, "Ratio 1.82:1 - minimum 3:1", and Text and Background swatches. The footer reads "WCAG 2.1 AA - 4.5:1 normal text, 3:1 large text".

Expected at src/assets/screenshots/guides/use-the-course-builder-canvas-tools/accessibility-checker-issues.png

Revealing content click by click with Animation mode

Animation mode, the play button above the canvas, lets you reveal a page a piece at a time: learners click and the next component appears. Use it to walk through a process step by step, or to hold back an answer until learners have thought about the question.

Choose Animation mode. Canvas animation opens on the right.
Under Add blocks, choose the components to reveal. Each one joins the Animation Sequence as the next click.
For each, choose how it appears: Appear, Fade in, Slide up or Slide from left.
Drag items to change the order. To reveal several components on the same click, choose Add group and put them in it.
Choose Close. Choose Preview to try it.

Until you add something, the drawer says No blocks in the animation sequence yet - choose blocks under Add blocks to add them. Components that are not in the sequence are on screen as soon as the page opens. Remove from sequence takes one out, and Reset all animations clears the whole sequence after asking you to confirm.

In Preview, and for learners, the page shows Click anywhere to continue until everything has been revealed.

Animation mode is not offered on the cover or closing page, because learners get no click-by-click reveal there.

Screenshot missinganimation-drawer

The Canvas animation drawer open on the right of the course builder for a module with five components. The Animation Sequence lists three steps, Click 1 to Click 3, one of them a group of two components, each with its entrance (Fade in, Slide up). Below, Add blocks lists the two components not yet in the sequence. Reset all animations and Add group are visible.

Expected at src/assets/screenshots/guides/use-the-course-builder-canvas-tools/animation-drawer.png

Adding content to a module with AI

AI, above the canvas, writes new text into the module you are working on. It is there to fill a gap or draw a module together, not to build one from scratch; for that, see Creating a course with AI.

Choose AI. Generate content for this module opens.
Choose what you want:
- Write on a topic adds new paragraphs on a Topic you type, such as “how to escalate a concern”
- Continue topic adds more content that follows on from what the module already says
- Summarise the module writes a summary of the module so far
Set the Length, from one to five paragraphs.
Choose Generate.

The result is added as a new Text component at the end of the module. It never replaces anything you have written, and Undo removes it. Read it and move it to where it belongs.

Continue topic and Summarise the module read the text in the module’s Text components, not its headings, lists or callouts, and only the first 3,000 or so characters of it. On a long module, the summary reflects the beginning.

AI appears only where AI features are switched on for your organisation, and not on the cover or closing page. It needs the course to have a real title and some real content; on an untitled course you are asked to add them first. If nothing can be written, a message says so, such as No text came back this time - please try again, and nothing is added.

For AI on a single piece of text, such as rewriting one paragraph, see Improving text with AI.

Making the canvas wider with Hide panels

Hide panels hides the component list and Modules so the canvas takes the full width. Show panels brings them back.

The readout beside it, such as Canvas 712px · phone layout, tells you how wide the canvas is and which layout learners at that width get: phone below 768 pixels, tablet below 1024, desktop above. It is for information; to see an exact device, use Preview.

Previewing a course as learners will see it

Preview shows the course with the learner’s own navigation, one page at a time, including anything you have not saved yet. Choose Exit preview to go back to editing.

Desktop, Tablet and Mobile show the page at those sizes, and Rotate turns a tablet or phone on its side
Next and Previous move through the cover, the contents screen, the module’s pages and the closing page
Animations play, and voiceovers can be played
You can choose answers to questions, but they are not marked and nothing is recorded

Preview is the builder’s view of the course. To take the course exactly as a learner does, with marking and results, publish it and choose Start course on its page.

Screenshot missingpreview-mobile

The course builder in Preview with Mobile selected, showing a module page at phone size with the learner's page bar at the top and Previous, the Module 1 of 3 line and Next at the bottom. The Desktop, Tablet and Mobile buttons, Rotate and Exit preview are visible above.

Expected at src/assets/screenshots/guides/use-the-course-builder-canvas-tools/preview-mobile.png

Approval comments in the course builder

Approval comments lets publish approvers and authors leave comments on a course, on a single component or on The whole course. It appears at the top of the builder only where your organisation’s publish check includes an approval step, with a number showing how many comments still need action.

Select a component, or none for the whole course, and choose Approval comments.
Type Your comment and choose Add comment. It is Visible to publish approvers and authors. Adding a comment saves the course first.
Components with comments show This block has comments.

A new comment is outstanding until somebody acts on it:

Action	Who can take it
Mark as addressed	The author, to say the change has been made. Anyone who can edit the course
Mark as resolved	The person who wrote the comment, once they are happy
Won’t fix	The person who wrote the comment, when it will not be acted on

People with Manage course approvals can take any of these. A resolved comment cannot be reopened, so write a new one if something comes back. Filter comments narrows the list, for example to Outstanding, and Newest first or Oldest first changes the order. For how the publish check itself works, see Publishing a course, and what a publish approval adds.

Messages above the course builder canvas

Message	What it means
This is currently being edited by a colleague	Somebody else has the course open. You cannot save until they close it, which stops two people overwriting each other
Changes awaiting approval	You have sent the course for approval. Learners keep seeing the approved course
Your latest changes are not being reviewed	You have saved since sending it. Send latest changes puts your newest version in front of the publish approver
These changes were sent back or These changes were declined	A publish approver has returned it, with the Reason:. Send for review again resubmits; Discard my changes goes back to the approved version, keeping your changes in version history

Other controls at the top of the course builder

Version history, the clock, shows every save and lets you put one back. See Course version history and restoring a version
The cog opens Course settings. See Setting a course’s details and timing
The help icon opens the help article for what you are doing, and changes when you select a question or a page break

Common questions

Does the course builder save automatically?

No. Choose Save as draft or Publish. If you try to leave with unsaved changes you are asked whether to save them.

Why does the accessibility checker say Accessible when my images have no descriptions?

It checks colour contrast only. Adding descriptions to images, videos and documents is up to you, and is covered in Describing images and media for screen readers.

Why is there no AI button in the course builder?

AI features are switched off for your organisation, or you have the cover or closing page open. Ask an administrator about the AI settings.

Why did Undo not bring back my title change?

The course title and Course settings are outside undo. Change them back by hand, or put back an earlier save from Version history.

Can two people edit a course at the same time?

No. The second person sees who has it open and cannot save until they finish.